This invention relates generally as indicated to a roller cover support for a paint roller frame, and more particularly to such a roller cover support which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, very lightweight for ease of handling, and permits ready removal and replacement of the paint roller cover after use for easy clean up and reuse.
There are many known types of paint roller frames which provide for replacement of the paint roller cover after use so that the frame may be reused at a substantial savings. The most common way of retaining the paint roller cover on the frame is by a wing nut or the like threaded onto the outboard end of the roller frame shaft. However, to replace the roller cover requires the operator to unscrew the nut and physically pull the cover off the shaft, which is particularly unsatisfactory when the roller cover and other parts of the roller frame are coated with paint. Reinserting the roller frame shaft through the holes in the end caps of a new roller cover is also sometimes difficult and time consuming, and the threaded end of the roller frame shaft usually projects beyond the outboard end of the paint roller cover after assembly by an amount sufficient to interfere with painting closely adjacent to corners and the like.
Flexible metal cage frames are also used for frictionally retaining paint roller covers in place, but they are relatively expensive and difficult to control the amount of force required to assemble and disassemble the roller cover from the cage.
An improved paint roller frame which positively retains the roller cover thereon during use and yet permits ready removal of the roller cover without having to touch it is shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,748, granted Aug. 14, 1973. However, there is still a need for a less expensive roller cover support which provides for the ready removal and replacement of the paint roller cover after use for easy clean up and reuse, which is a principal object of the present invention.
Another object is to provide such a roller cover support which is very lightweight for ease of handling.
Another object is to provide such a roller cover support which resists or prevents the intrusion of paint and other materials into the interior thereof, and resists adherence of paint to the exterior thereof.
Yet another object is to provide such a roller cover support which, in one form of the invention, is entirely closed to prevent any water or the like from entering the support and becoming trapped during clean up.
These and other objects of the present invention may be achieved by providing a roller cover support in the form of a blow molded sleeve or spindle having a plurality of protruding ribs thereon to frictionally retain the roller cover in place. The sleeve is preferably made of a high density polyurethane or polypropylene having the desired impact resistance and controlled elasticity or flexibility for firmly gripping the roller cover, and is supported at its ends by individual end caps which include suitable bearing surfaces for journaling of the support on the roller frame shaft. The O.D. of the end caps and adjacent ends of the sleeve are slightly smaller than the I.D. of the roller cover for normal concentricity and guidance of the roller cover onto the sleeve, and the sleeve desirably tapers slightly inwardly adjacent such ends to avoid possible interference with the cover caused by nonuniform molding and the like. The ends of the ribs are also tapered to wedge the roller cover on, and the extent of interference of the ribs and their length as well as their number and location may be readily varied as desired to obtain the desired amount of friction required to retain the roller cover in place and yet permit ready pull-off of the cover for ease of cleaning and replacement as required.
The ends of the sleeve are molded to readily receive and mount the individual end caps thereon which are desirably injection molded to provide suitable bearings for the roller frame shaft and also provide some support against collapse or flattening out of the sleeve during use under pressure.
When the roller cover support is mounted on a conventional wire roller frame of the type including a handle portion and a shaft portion extending at substantially right angles thereto, the roller cover support bearings must have open ends for receipt of the roller frame shaft from one end, which has the disadvantage that water or solvent may enter the ends of the sleeve through the end cap bearings and become trapped therein during clean up. However, perforations may be placed along the length of the spindle to provide drainage of such water or solvent and also increase the flexibility of the sleeve as desired. Alternatively, the frame may be in the shape of a Y including spaced apart end mounts for both ends of the support, in which event the end caps may be completely closed to keep water or solvent out of the interior of the support. Such end mounts are preferably substantially flat and parallel to each other and relatively thin so as not to interfere with painting closely adjacent to a corner and the like.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.